NEW DETONATING SUBSTANCE. 209 



weak solution o* pure ammonia, answ red (he purpose -as well as 

 the solution ot nitrate ammonia, it was formed most rapidly 

 in the solution of ammonia, but ir was white and clouded; and 

 though less evanesc u than in the ytrong sol ;'ion I first used, it 

 was far from bein:, as permanent as in the solut <>ns of nitrate and 

 oxalate. The so uion of prussiate of ammonia acted ott by chlo. 

 rine, afford. I m ol peculiar oil ; but produced white fumeg, 

 and became of a right green colour. An attempt was made to 

 procure the substance in large quantities, by passing chlorine into 

 Wolfe's bottles containing the different solutions : but a single trial 

 proved the danger of this mode of operating; the compound had 

 scarcely begun to form, when, by the action of some ammoniacal 

 vapour on chlorine, heat was produced, whica occasioned a violent 

 explosion, and the whole apparatus was destroyed. 



" I shall now describe the properties of the new substance. Its 

 colour is very nearly that of olive oil, and it is as transparent, and 

 more perfectly liquid. I have not been able to ascertain its speci- 

 fic gravity with accuracy, but it is probably above 16. Its smell 

 is very nauseous^ strongly resembling that of the combination of 

 carbonic oxide aud chlorine, discovered by my brother; and its 

 effect on the eyas is peculiarly pungent and distressing. A little 

 of it was introduced under water into the receiver of an air pump, 

 and the receiver exhausted ; it became an elastic fluid and in its 

 gasseous state was rapidly absorbed or decomposed by the water. 

 When warm water was poured into a glass containing it, it expand- 

 ed into a globule of elastic fluid, of an orange colour, which dimi- 

 nished as it passed through the water. 



11 I attempted to collect the products of the explosion of the new 

 substance, by applying the heat of a spirit lamp to a globule 

 of it, confined in a curved glass tube over water : a little gass was 

 at first extricated ; but long before the water had attained tae tem- 

 perature of ebullition, a violent flash of light was perceived, with 

 a sharp report ; the tube and glass were broken into small frag, 

 meais, aud I received a severe wound in the transparent corner 

 of the eye, which has produced a considerable inflammation of the 

 eye, and obliges me to make the communication i;y an amanuensis. 

 This experiment proves what extreme caut a ; s necessary in ope. 

 rating on this substance, for the quantity used was scarcely as 

 large as a grain of mustard seed. 



" A small globule of it thrown into a glass of olive oil, produced 



VOL. vi. * 



